The seventh moon of Creation is Strawberry Moon. The medicine of the strawberry is reconciliation. It was during this moon cycle that communities usually held their annual feast, welcoming everyone home, regardless of their differences over the past year, letting go of judgment and of self-righteousness. The strawberry or 'heart berry' is the first berry to ripen, and it is thought to be a good medicine for the heart and the teeth. It is a berry that holds its seeds on the outside showing us how to be vulnerable and humble.

Acknowledgement

We are building this path upon gifts of wisdom and stories gifted to us by seven generations past of Our ancestors in order to build, feed, and nurture seven generations yet to come. We are honoured and humbled to share a path gifted by authors, poets, and illustrators.

New relationships are walking this path, and we are excited to share this opportunity with allies. This path is being built together with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit of Guelph with their ally, Guelph Public Library. Guelph Public Library is grateful to walk this path with their First Nations, Métis, and Inuit allies.

These stories hold the gifts of all Our relations, human and non-human.

With humility, we are building this path to ensure respect for stories for those seven generations of faces not yet seen.

About the First Nations Métis Inuit Newsletter

This NextReads newsletter consists of a selection of the First Nation Communities Read - 2018/2019 Longlist of Nominated Titles. Each First Nations Métis Inuit NextReads newsletter attempts to include a title created by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit creators. Some newsletter issues may not include a creator from each of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities due to the greater number of First Nations authors, poets, graphic novelists, and illustrators represented on the First Nation Communities Read - 2018/2019 Longlist of Nominated Titles. The Guelph community acknowledges and honours the creations of all Indigenous nations equally.

In Indigenous ways of living and learning, each story has and gifts its own voice. The shared voices of the storyteller, creator, author, illustrator are unique gifts too. Likewise, if you receive these ‘story gifts’, your voice has its own unique response.

Along with a summary, each book listed in NextReads includes an acknowledgement of all the creators.And to show reciprocal respect, the voices and reflections of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit who live in Guelph and area are shared as well.

First Nation Communities Read

First Nation Communities Read is an annual reading program launched in 2003 by the First Nations public library community in Ontario. First Nation Communities Read selected and other recommended titles:

Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time is a collection of indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters. These stories range from a transgender woman undergoing an experimental transition process to young lovers separated through decades and meeting in their own far future. These are stories of machines and magic, love and self-love.

The Creators:All of the stories in this collection are by indigenous writers, LGBT and/or two-spirit and their allies, and they deliberately employ science fiction as a way of imagining a future that is positively indigenous and positively LGBT, but also simply, plainly positive. The creators are Grace Dillon,Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair,.Richard Van Camp, Cherie Dimaline, David Robertson, Daniel Heath Justice, Darcie Little Badger, Gwen Benaway, Mari Kurisato, Nathan Adler, Cleo Keahna,and Jeffrey Veregge.

Reflection

The very title of this collection of stories stirs a core understanding within me as to why we are here on Mother Earth. We were born to share a pure spiritual love that goes beyond body, space, and time. A love that connects all of creation in a Circle formed from the truths of acceptance, inclusion, respect, and equality. In this time of reconciliation we are being offered the precious gift, and the responsibility of remembering and reclaiming all truths in healing in order to honour this Circle of Love. Our stories carry our truths. Each story is woven together to create one story that reflects the choices we made while we walked with our ancestors, and unborn children’s spirits. This collection of stories reminds me of the sacredness within innate difference, and the full beauty of inner peace we help create when we open our hearts and minds to marvel at the wonder of, and then embrace one another as unique spirits. When you read Love Beyond Body, Space and Time you may find yourself soaring like miigizi (eagle) above the BIG picture of personal vulnerability, fear, strength of spirit, and wisdom in each story, and becoming expansive!

When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother’s garden, she begins to notice things about her grandmother that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long braided hair and wear beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where everything was taken away. When We Were Alone is a story about a difficult time in history and, ultimately, a story of empowerment and strength.

The Creators: David A. Robertson is an award-winning writer. His books include When We Were Alone (winner Governor General’s Literary Award), Will I See? (winner Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award Graphic Novel Category), Betty, The Helen Betty Osborne Story (listed In The Margins), and the YA novel Strangers. David educates as well as entertains through his writings about Indigenous Peoples in Canada, reflecting their cultures, histories, communities, as well as illuminating many contemporary issues. David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg.

Julie Flett is an award-winning Cree-Metis author, illustrator and artist. She has received many awards, including the 2016 American Indian Library Association Award for Best Picture Book for Little You, written by Richard Van Camp (Orca Books), and the Canadian Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Award in 2015 for Dolphins SOS, written by Roy Miki (Tradewind Books) and in 2017 for My Heart Fills with Happiness, written by Monique Gray Smith (Orca Books), and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature for her book Owls See Clearly at Night (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer): A Michif Alphabet (L’alphabet di Michif). Her own Wild Berries (Simply Read Books) was chosen as Canada’s First Nation Communities Read title selection for 2014-2015.

ReflectionI remember my gramma. She was small and quiet. Depending upon the time of year she seemed to smell of sage, sweetgrass, lavender and lilac. We often gathered wild flowers and after a story we offered some of them to the water. And when finally we were alone and all the blossoms had travelled downstream, we would dangle our feet together in that cold spring-fed farm creek and not say a word for hours.... So now we are never alone.

Over the span of ten years, seven high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of miles away from their families, forced to leave their reserve because there was no high school there for them to attend. Award-winning journalist Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest, and struggle with, human rights violations past and present against aboriginal communities.

The Creator: Tanya Talaga has been a journalist at the Toronto Star for twenty years, covering everything from general city news to education, national healthcare, foreign news, and Indigenous affairs. She has been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism, and she is the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy. Talaga is of Polish and Indigenous descent. Her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, was a residential school survivor. Her great-grandfather, Russell Bowen, was an Ojibwe trapper and labourer. Her grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her mother was raised in Raith and Graham, Ontario. Talaga lives in Toronto with her two teenage children.

ReflectionTanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers breaks the myth. There has yet to be a ‘post-colonial era’! The information shared is raw and real! Every day indigenous lives are taken, hearts broken, minds in fury and spirits shattered. Still this book, gifted in a heart-felt and mind-full way is a true testament to Creation – to relentless love. Love as a way of being, a way of learning. Love as the source of hope and resilience for the Greater Good of All Creation.